Potential Applications of Lignin

Vegetal biomass is a large source of precious chemical components that may be used in several activities nowadays, being in pharmaceutical, medicinal, cosmetic, and perfume industry activities or used as templates for new routes to chemical modifications. With this, several sectors profit, but on the other side and of extreme importance is the scientific knowledge that is acquired and then used to benefit humans and nature in its fullness. Of the various components of plant biomass origin, this chapter intends to emphasize softwood, hardwood, and grass lignins, based on discussions on information on their chemical structures and the application potential that they represent. Some structural models of each source of this type of biomass were analyzed to achieve this objective. Recognizing differences in chemical groups that appear more frequently in one model than in another already gives an idea of potential application. However, pulp processes are responsible for removing lignins and polyosis. The lignins obtained from these processes have different chemical structures and compositions of components. With lignin depolymerization processes, as well as recovery and fractionation processes, they have contributed significantly to the appreciation of this macromolecule from renewable sources. These strategies have contributed to lignin to be destined for various applications, whether in agriculture, the construction industry, medicine, space technologies, water decontamination, and ultimately, in many areas, which will certainly help the reader to use the information to plan future scientific and technological works.